I would like to have God back in my life but I don’t know how to do it on my own. Can you help?

Your question implies that at one time you “had God in your life,” which means that you are a true believer in the Lord Jesus Christ. One must be clear on this, for until one accepts the Lord Jesus Christ as their personal Savior they “do NOT have God in their life.” In John 1:12 we read, “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (NKJV). The moment a sinner turns to Christ in repentance and faith, believing that He is their Savior; he/she becomes a child of God. They are then “in God’s family” and thus “God is in their life.”

Scripture also teaches us that a child of God can drift away from their Father by neglecting to remain in communion with Him through prayer and reading His Word. This, in turn, leads to a life of worldliness and sin. We have multiple examples of this in the Bible but let’s consider King David in 2nd Samuel chapter 12. The beginning of David’s departure from God is seen in verse 1, “It happened in the spring of the year, at THE TIME WHEN KINGS GO OUT TO BATTLE, that David sent Joab and his servants with him, and all Israel; and they destroyed the people of Ammon and besieged Rabbah. But DAVID REMAINED AT JERUSALEM.” It is clear that David should have “gone out to battle” but instead he “remained at Jerusalem.” Why did David stay home? If he wasn’t sure what he should do, why didn’t he go to the Lord in prayer and ask Him what to do? Clearly, David was already drifting way from God! He was neglecting to pray and to ask God to give him direction through His Word.

What happened next was sad and tragic. In verse 2 we read that David “walked on the roof of the king’s house and….saw a woman bathing and the woman was very beautiful to behold.” What should David have done? Why, he should have LOOKED AWAY and CALLED OUT TO THE LORD to give him the power to resist temptation. Instead we read that “David sent and inquired about the woman…then David sent messengers, and took her; and she came to him, and he lay with her” (verses 3-4). Because David was out of communion with the Lord he succumbed to the temptation and ended up committing adultery. But it gets worse, for verse 5 tells us, “And the woman conceived; so she sent and told David, and said, ‘I am with child’.” This, in turn, caused David to fetch her husband from the battlefield so he could lay with his wife, but he refused to engage in pleasure while his fellow-soldiers were engaged in battle. So, David’s attempt to “cover up his sin” failed and he then goes deeper into sin by having him sent to the front lines to be killed so he could take her to be his wife (verses 6-27). The last words of our chapter are most sobering, “But the thing that David had done displeased the LORD.”

As we said at the beginning, neglecting prayer and reading God’s Word leads to sin. David’s lack of communion with the Lord eventually led to adultery, deception and murder! I would encourage you now to read chapter 12 where we see God faithfully bringing David to acknowledge his sin and being restored to fellowship with the Lord (though he still had to suffer some bitter consequences for his sin). In Psalm 51 we have the actual words that David prayed to God as he confessed his sin. Verse 4 has always stood out to me, “Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight.” Had not David also sinned against Bathsheba and her husband Uriah? Yes, but first and foremost his sin was AGAINST GOD! Precious are his words in verses 10-12, “Create in me a clean heart, O God…do not cast me away from Your presence…restore to me the joy of Your salvation.” He longed to have a heart that could once again enjoy God’s presence and His salvation? That seems to be what you are longing for. You may not have sinned to the same degree that David did, but the solution to your problem is the same. You MUST go to God in prayer and admit that you have abandoned him and ask Him to restore to you the JOY OF HIS PRESENCE AND SALVATION. He will do so, as He promises us in 1st John 1:9, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” (290.1) (DO)